


Wanting you is like playing a losing game.

by IrisofParadise



Series: Domestic AU [16]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22931617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisofParadise/pseuds/IrisofParadise
Summary: In which Toly Ranskahov Jr. gets a crush on Nika Belova-Romanoff and things may be perfect if he could a) learn how to handle a crush and b) if Nika wasn't already dating his cousin, Vasya.
Relationships: OFC/OFC, Vasya Ranskahova-Murdock/Nika Belova-Romanoff
Series: Domestic AU [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1510844
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Wanting you is like playing a losing game.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gangstertogangster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gangstertogangster/gifts).



> Toly, Andrey, Shauna, and Honor all belong to @gangstertogangster and I thank her always for allowing me to write angst for her babies! Though, can we all just appreciate the fact that it wasn't Shauna I was hurting this time? 
> 
> Toly really doesn't know how to handle a crush. I envision this about 4-6 months after his chaotic run in with Honor Alvarez's parents, Mariah and Shades. Unfortunately, tumblr deleted her oneshot ficlet of that fiasco so I am unable to link to it.
> 
> Alexei is 19  
> Toly is 16  
> Jack, Nika, Vasya are all 15  
> Andrey is 14

**_Hell’s Kitchen, New York  
_ ** **_February, 2031  
_ ** Toly had a big problem. And currently it was sitting on the couch, cuddling with his cousin, and giggling as Vasya twirled her hair around on her finger, a yappy little white dog sitting between the two of them. 

Both Vasya and Nika were staring at each other with stars in their eyes.

It was disgusting really. But Toly still felt his heart stutter in his chest, his palms feeling clammy, and having to bite back the urge to swallow the lump that was growing thickly in his throat.

Nika was just so… pretty.

Hair in waves, falling halfway down her back and over her shoulders. Blue eyes. She had such a beautiful laugh that never failed to make Toly's heart skip. Even the way she yawned, and she seemed to almost always be yawning as she was always ready to take a nap, was adorable. Toly wanted nothing more than to hold her hand.

During classes he’d been catching himself daydreaming about her. Coffee dates where they held hands and she told him all about hockey practice. Picnics in the park every so often where he’d surprise her with McDonalds and she’d give him that big and bright smile before happily eating a chicken nugget. 

He’d been following her a bit, not stalking, just following her. Mostly around school. And on a few dates she was going on. Once to the movies when she was with her parents. It was innocent following her, he’d never do anything to her! He’d learned her school schedule by paying attention to her at school. Learned where in the library she tended to fall asleep. Overheard her singing once when she thought she was in the theatre alone.

He really  _ really  _ liked Nika. He could see them together.

The problem was that she was currently dating his cousin and Vasya, god bless her heart, trusted him. She didn’t even know how Toly felt about her girlfriend. Even though he’d been tagging along on their dates for well over two weeks now.

“Come on, Tol!” Jack yelled suddenly, completely yanking his older cousin out of his thoughts, leaning to the left slightly as he moved his character around on the television in order to not get shot. 

Toly quickly forced himself to tune back into the video game. “Fucking fuck!” He yelled before he could stop himself, turning his character around and shooting a zombie that was about to kill him. 

Matt narrowed his eyes from the kitchen. “Toly! Put a dollar in the swear jar!”

Toly bit his tongue to stop himself from cursing again. The swear jar was a tradition for as long as Toly could remember, he blamed his mother really, and he knew that his uncles were much more adamant about putting a dollar in it that his own parents were. Jack snickered at his cousin’s misfortune but quickly glared as Toly tried to shoot his character.

“Dude! We’re on the same side!”

“My bad,” Toly replied dryly, turning his character once more and shooting another zombie before running off.

Jack scoffed, absent mindedly petting Lina who had moved from sleeping under the kitchen table to come and lay beside him. 

But Vasya groaned loudly, very dramatically really, and whined out, “Daaadddyy! Please can Nika and I go to my room?” 

Toly felt as though his heart had just jumped into his throat. He didn’t want to think about the object of his affections in Vasya’s bed. Kissing Vasya. It was enough to make him sick. 

Matt rolled his eyes and stirred the pot of noodles; mac-n-cheese and baked chicken for dinner with Vladimir cooking the chicken. “Absolutely not, Vasilisa. You’re out of your mind.”

Toly let out the tiniest of exhales, relieved, and thankfully right at that moment, Jack had tossed a grenade that had effectively killed all of the zombies surrounding Toly’s character so Jack thought that he was sighing in relief over not dying in the video game.

Vasya groaned once more, leaning her forehead on Nika’s shoulder. Nika just laughed and hugged her girlfriend, Toly almost threw up, tightly. 

“It’s okay, babe. The game isn’t that annoying,” Nika said sympathetically. She was a little disappointed too though. Having a chaperone for their time together was very annoying. When they were at her home, both of her mothers would be the chaperones, sitting in the living room with them and heaven forbid if they tried to sneak to Nika’s room. At least at the Murdock-Ranskahov household there was Jack so it wasn’t always Vasya’s parents awkwardly chaperoning them.

But other times, especially lately, Vasya and Jack’s cousin had been coming over to hang out with Jack. And so long as Jack was in the living room, Vasya and Nika were not permitted in her room alone.

Vasya rolled her eyes but smiled a small smile as she stared into Nika’s eyes. “ _ You’re so cute, _ ” Vasya breathed out in Russian.

Toly and Jack both made a gagging noise, but while Jack laughed and clearly didn’t mean it, Toly was completely serious. 

Matt leaned over slightly to whisper to Vladimir, “I think she honestly forgets that I know a good bit of Russian.” 

Vladimir snickered but elbowed his husband softly in the ribs. “Tease her later if you must, cook dinner first,” he whispered back. 

Toly rolled his eyes and took his frustration out on an unfortunate video game zombie as he heard Nika breathe out just as softly and dazed sounding, “ _ You’re cuter. _ ”

Toly swore that if they were about to get into a ‘no you’re cuter’ match, he was going to walk right out and go back to his own home. Thankfully he was saved by a knock on the door.

Vasya frowned but stood and slowly opened the door. “Hi-hi, Auntie Tasha, Tetka Lena.” 

Both women smiled warmly at the brunette. 

“Hey-hey, Vas,” Natasha said warmly. “Nika, you ready to-”

“Lena! My love!” Vladimir shouted from the kitchen, effectively interrupting Natasha. “Are you staying for dinner?!” Vladimir asked, moving away from the stove in order to stand in the kitchen entrance way and gave pleading puppy eyes to his best friend.

Yelena smirked. “I am afraid not, Volo’ya, my darling,” she sighed out just as dramatically. 

Neither of the blondes noticed or cared how their significant other was rolling their eyes at them.

“Natalia and I promised to take Verushka to McDonalds tonight,” Yelena continued. 

Vladimir scoffed and waved the trio out. “Terrible,” he snorted, “keeping promises to your children!” He turned and pointed a finger sternly at the four teenagers in the living room. “You know, in Russia, parents lie to their children!”

The four teenagers rolled their eyes, completely used to his dramatics. 

“I bet they feed their kids to bears too, don’t they Papa?” Jack asked cheekily.

Vladimir nodded. “Damn right they do. Especially the back talking ones!” He said, pointing at Jack.

“Hear that, Vas? You’d be fed to a bear!” Jack teased. He laughed as his sister stuck her tongue out at him.

Her grin fell slightly as she watched Nika tug her shoes on and pick up her backpack.

“Thanks for letting me hang out here all day!” Nika said to Matt and Vladimir who both just told her that she was always welcome. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Vaska,” Nika said, leaning forward and pecking Vasya on the check quickly before following her moms out of the apartment, waving as they left. 

Toly only waited three and half more minutes before letting himself die in the video game. “Well, I think I’m gonna go home too,” he said, already wrapping the game controller up. He was careful to keep things more tidy while over at his uncle’s house. Vladimir was OCD and had a particular place for everything while Matt liked things to be in a certain place so that he could relax his senses and move around his home with ease.

Jack groaned. “Whaa? Really?” 

Toly nodded but didn’t look at either of his cousins. “Yeah, I promised Andrey I’d play a couple games with him.”

Matt raised an eyebrow at the terrible lie but didn’t comment on it. He wasn’t an idiot, he’d heard Toly’s heart race every time that Nika spoke. Had smelled as his nephew broke into a sweat. The signs of a teenage crush were hanging off of the sixteen year old like a fog over Washington. He hoped that Natasha would be gentle when she decided enough was enough of Toly’s crush on her daughter.

When Toly was safely back in his own room, he fell face first onto his bed and screamed into his pillow. He needed advice on how to handle this crush.

So he rolled onto his back and pulled out his phone to shoot a quick text to Alexei. More from a lack of knowing who else to talk to because god knew that Andrey wouldn’t be able to give him sound dating advice.

**Toly** :  _ SOS I like a girl what do I do? _

As was his custom, Alexei almost immediately began to text him back. 

**Alexei** :  _ Remember how things with Honor went? _

Toly winced. 

**Toly** :  _ unfortunately  
_ **Alexei** :  _ Do the opposite of uhh ALL of that _

Toly glared and sent back ten middle finger emojis.

* * *

**_Three days later…  
_ ** The sound of  _ Infernal Dance _ filled the rink and Vasya was clearly putting her whole heart into her performance even if it was only a practice and her only audience was her girlfriend and cousin.

Toly wanted to talk to Nika, very badly, but couldn’t think of what to say.

_ “You look nice” _ ? No, she’d get up and leave immediately and look at him as though he’d grown two more heads. Or worse, tell Vasya. 

So he instead just focused on watching his cousin dance on the ice and tried not to think about the fact that Nika was sitting right next to him. He didn’t know any of the names for the moves that she was performing; flips, arms moving daintily, spins that would have made him sick, moving her body in ways that he couldn’t even imagine being in. 

Hockey though, he’d picked up the terminology for hockey from the times he’d watched her practice with Jack and the rest of the hockey team. 

As the classical music came to an end, a pop song began to play and Vasya began to dance her way around the ice gracefully once more. 

_ “Let me be your remedy!” _ The lyrics played out over the speakers and Vasya spun on one foot, the other high behind her. 

_ “Right beside you, I’ll never leave you! Let me be your heart and your company! I’ll let you be the one who can lean on me! I’ll catch you when you fall! When you’re falling free! Let me be, be your gravity!”  _

Vasya performed, a look of pure determination and concentration painting her face. She spun, skated backwards, flipped several times and looked as though she were flying. 

“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” Nika asked breathlessly, eyes wide as she watched Vasya cartwheel three times in a row on the ice.

Toly glanced at Nika from the corner of his eye and responded with a simple, equally breathless, “Yeah.” Though, he was thinking about her and not his cousin at all. 

“She could skate circles around the hockey team like nobody’s business honestly,” Nika said, eyes never leaving Vasya’s form.

Toly frowned, noticing how without even trying or noticing, Vasya had Nika’s complete and undivided attention. He kind of hated it. 

He wanted that. 

“What’s your favorite thing to do on the ice?” Toly blurted before he could stop himself. He then wanted to smack himself.

Nika hummed in thought. “I think racing. Jack always gives me a run for my money but Vas,” she shook her head and grinned happily, “she’s fast but she stops racing to do those triple axels.”

Toly glanced back at the ice in order to watch right as Vasya landed from a perfect triple axel jump. He nodded as if he completely understood. “Well next time you’re at the rink alone and bored, maybe I could race you?”

He broke into a sweat when Nika frowned and gave him a quizzical look. “Maybe,” she said, turning to look back at the ice. 

Not a yes by any means but definitely not a no. Toly counted it as a win.

Two minutes later and Vasya was skating over to them, leaning over the bar that separated them from the ice. She grinned, breathing heavily, and completely ignoring as  _ Habanera  _ from  _ Carmen  _ began to float through the speakers. 

“How was that?”

Nika grinned and gave the brunette two thumbs up. “Fantastic! How long did it take for you to perfect those cartwheels?”

Vasya blew out a breath, blowing her hair off of her forehead for just a moment before the baby hairs fell back to place. “A long time.”

Nika giggled and it made Toly’s heart clenched; why couldn’t he make her make that sound? 

An hour later he left them to their ice skating. It seemed to be their tradition to skate around each other, singing off key to corny pop music. Toly just didn’t want to be witness to it. He walked home and thought about his first crush; Honor Alvarez.

It hadn’t ended well. He shivered, completely unrelated to the cold weather, as he thought about Mariah Dillard’s warm and inviting grin that had turned into a pure blizzard. How Honor’s father had glared from behind his sunglasses and bit out for Toly to leave his daughter alone. 

At least with Nika’s mothers he didn’t have to worry about them threatening to murder him.

Plus, his crush on Nika was completely different. It was more. And once Nika realized that he was there waiting for her, she’d be sure to give him a chance, he just knew it.

* * *

**_The next day…  
_ ** Toly stood straighter as he made his way over to Nika’s locker. She was standing in front of it, looking for a book or a pen, he wasn’t sure. What he was sure of was that she looked absolutely gorgeous. More so than usual actually. The not-rejection the day before had given him courage to talk to her again.

“Hey, Nika,” Toly said, leaning against the locker beside hers. 

Nika jumped slightly before giving him a smile. “Hey, Toly. What’s up?” She made a noise as she found the notebook she had been looking for and stuffed it into her backpack. A glance to her phone told her that she had a text from Vasya saying she was saving her a seat at their table for lunch and over twenty-three texts from the band group chat.

Toly shrugged and looked away from her, hoping that he looked as cool as he felt. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the back slightly. “Not much. Headed to biology but saw you and,” he shrugged and gave her a grin, “decided to say hi.”

Nika nodded in understanding. “Cool. Well, I gotta get to lunch. Vasi is waiting for me and today is chicken nugget day.” 

Before she could fully turn away from him Toly blurted out, “What’re you doin’ after school today?”

Nika frowned and he decided that he did not like her looking upset.

“Uh, Vaska and I are getting coffee at Mr. Kournikov’s shop,” Nika said slowly. She wasn’t sure why Toly was suddenly talking to her so much more lately.

Toly hummed and looked at her in surprise. “Oh wow that’s weird! I was thinking about going over there myself! Aunt Briana makes the best espresso.” 

Nika nodded. “I really love the way she does lattes.” 

Toly snapped his fingers. “Hey, you should tell Vas, since you’re about to meet up with her, and tell her that I’ll drive you two. And pay for coffee?”

Nika bit her bottom lip and Toly nearly melted right there on the spot. She finally nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’ll tell her. I’m sure she’ll be excited for you to come with us on our  _ date _ .” She stressed the word ‘date’ but he was already so high on cloud nine that he just beamed at her.

As Toly sat in biology, doodling Nika’s name in Russian on his notes, Vasya was grinning and telling Nika, “Oh that’s so sweet of him!”

Richard rolled his eyes and ignored the pointed look that Honor gave him as if telling him,  _ ‘She’s so oblivious…’ _

Jack made a face at Nika who pointedly ignored him. And Jack wondered how much longer Vasya was going to let Toly tag along on her dates before she realized that he wasn’t excited to hang out with her but excited to hang out with Nika. 

* * *

**_A few days later…  
_ ** Toly’s world came crashing down around him and he felt as though he were suffocating as he was slammed forcibly into a brick wall, a knife held just centimeters from his throat. 

Yelena glared harshly at him and suddenly Toly remembered that Nika’s mothers were two of the deadliest assassins in the world who made Shades Alvarez and Mariah Dillard look like child’s play.

“How are you doing, Tolka?” Yelena asked as if she were asking about his favorite food, bored and not really interested and just making polite conversation. Toly would have fallen for it too if it hadn’t been for the knife near his throat and the fury dancing in Yelena’s eyes. The fact that she used such a cutesy diminutive of his name didn’t sit well in the pit of his stomach and he wished that the ground would open up and swallow him whole if only to save him from Yelena’s anger.

“I uh…” Toly gulped, eyes wide and a sweat beginning to break out. “Been better,” he finally managed to say, voice wavering much to his embarrassment.

Yelena nodded. “Understandable.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I have noticed you following my daughter around.” Toly’s heart nearly stopped beating right then and there. “Your father has two more sons. He will not miss if one goes missing.” Toly’s heart thudded so loudly in his chest that he was almost positive Yelena could hear it. “You understand what I am telling you, yes?”

Toly nodded, careful not to do so too quickly for fear of slitting his own throat accidentally. 

“Good.” Yelena leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice as if she were about to tell him a very important secret. “Stop flirting with my daughter. Stop following her around. Or I will make it where no one will ever find your body.” 

Toly’s eyes widened even more and if she weren’t playing bad cop, Yelena would have laughed at him. As it were though, she was working. 

She took a step back, her knife once more disappearing into her boot. “Go.” 

And Toly did just that, running and wishing he’d actually worn a belt for once in his life as his pants were hardly staying on his body. More than anything he just hoped that Vasya didn’t know he liked her girlfriend.

Yelena leaned against the building she had had Toly pinned to just moments ago. “How was that?”

Natasha leaped down from the balcony two stories above her with practiced grace. “Wonderful, krolishka,” Natasha said, kissing her wife’s cheek quickly. “I don’t think he’ll be following Nika around ever again.” 

“Good,” Yelena nodded. “It was so difficult to watch that movie last week with him drooling over her from only two rows away.” 

Natasha smirked. “Poor dear,” she drawled out. “He gets his lack of subtlety from his father unfortunately.”

* * *

**_An hour later…  
_ ** Toly’s hope of his cousin not knowing about his crush on Nika was completely shattered when he saw her waiting for him outside his apartment. She was sitting on the floor, clearly waiting for him, and looked as though she were about to cry. 

“You  _ like  _ Nika?!” She hissed, jumping to her feet and glaring at Toly harshly.

Toly winced. “I wasn’t gonna tell you-” 

Vasya snorted. “That much has been made obvious! Everyone  _ except for me _ knew that you like her!”

Toly made a face. This wasn’t really much of a shock; Vasya was kind of clueless. She hadn’t even noticed Richard crushing on her for literal years now. He must not have done a very good job of hiding his lack of surprise because she made a noise that was a mix between a choked sob and a laugh.

Vasya shook her head. “I guess everyone has been having a nice laugh about this! I’m too  _ dumb  _ to notice someone else flirting with my own girlfriend! And to make it worse, it’s my cousin doing the flirting! I actually thought that you were hanging out with us to hang out with  _ me _ !”

For lack of a better response, Toly just shrugged sheepishly and offered a quiet, “I’m sorry?”

It did not calm his cousin down in the slightest. In fact it made a new fury light up in her eyes, almost literally. For once, Toly didn’t feel jealousy over Vasya’s powers but rather a mild tremor of fear that shot down his spine. He’d never been on the receiving end of one of her punches or of her powers but he had seen the damage she could do.

She shook her head again, scoffing at herself. She tried to take a calming breath as she didn’t want to “You  _ never _ want to hangout with me, just Jack and your brothers! I thought you were finally wanting to spend time with me and learn about what I like to do! I can’t believe you used me to try and flirt with Nika and I can’t believe I didn’t even notice!” She shoved her way past him to step into the apartment across the hall where she lived. She wasted no time practically throwing the door closed in his face.

Toly winced.

Being kicked out of Honor’s house had hurt his feelings and pride. He’d cried a little if he were completely honest. Honor’s parents had terrified him and any chance he’d hoped to have with Honor was destroyed that day. Nika’s mothers had been even more terrifying. But neither experience with his love interests had made him feel as scummy as Vasya’s betrayed fury had. 

* * *

**_The next day…  
_ ** Toly had hoped that after a full day his cousin would have let the majority of her steam out. But as it stood, Vasya was currently pretending that he did not exist. Instead of hopping in the Veles taxi that Toly used as his own personal car and riding to school with him, Andrey, and Jack, she had stuck her nose in the air and stormed away from the car, not even saying a curt ‘good morning’ to him.

Jack had given Toly a look of disapproval, clearly siding with his sister on the matter of Toly’s crush and apparent betrayal, and followed her. This wasn’t much of a surprise. Jack and Vasya were extremely close, almost unhealthily co-dependently so.

“Really? You too?” Toly snapped as Andrey slid from the passenger side. He felt that he shouldn’t have been too surprised. Where he was close to Jack, Andrey and Vasya had been closer. 

Andrey shrugged, a light flush dusting across his cheeks. He offered a sheepish, “Sorry, Toly. Vas was crying last night.” 

Toly groaned. “Betrayed by my own brother!”

Andrey gave a sympathetic smile. “I’ll ride with you again when Vas forgives you. You really shouldn’t have used her like that.” 

Toly glared as the door was shut and he dropped his head onto the steering wheel with a sigh. “I didn’t use her…” He muttered. “I just…” He sat back up and stared out the window for a moment. “Used her. Fuck.” He put the car into drive and drove to school, alone and too upset to play any music. The silence made the short drive feel like an eternity and it left him with far too much time to think about the situation he found himself in.

He had no doubts that Vasya would eventually forgive him and things would go back to the way they were before his crush was brought to her attention. But it was the waiting for that moment that Toly really didn’t want to do. 

He spent the school day trying to shove his guilt down but after every class he saw someone from his cousins’ friend group that clearly knew what was going on and who gave him a disappointed look. Except for Rikki, who glared at him and made a punching gesture. It was no secret that she also liked Nika; even Vasya knew. And Rikki was clearly taking his interest in Nika as a personal attack. 

Toly thought it may be in his best interest to avoid the group as a whole. 

It was after lunch when he decided to take the risk and go talk to Nika who was at her locker, laughing and talking to Francis.

Upon his arrival they both stopped laughing and Nika shut her locker door with a loud snap. “Uhm, no offense, but I think my moms told you to stay away from me,” she said, giving Toly a guarded expression. 

Francis took a step closer to her in case she needed comfort but she shrugged him off. 

Toly sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah… Look, I just… I’m sorry,” he said, words falling out in a jumbled rush. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. And I didn’t mean to make my cousin mad.” 

Nika waited a moment, mulling over his apology, before nodding slowly. He felt a sigh of relief building up but never got the chance to release it as she said, “But you did. You can’t just follow people to the movie theater when they’re having a family day, dude.”

Toly flushed scarlet. “You knew about that?” He asked softly, completely embarrassed. 

Nika raised an eyebrow. “My moms are the Black Widows. And you’re not slick.” At Toly’s silence she shook her head. “As for upsetting Vas, you have to apologize to her yourself. She and Jack look up to you.”

“For some reason -- oof!” Francis muttered before Nika elbowed him in the gut. 

“We have to get to class. See you later, Tol.” Nika said, waving as she and Francis walked away. Francis grumbled under his breath about Nika’s elbowing him as they walked past Toly. 

Hearing about his cousins looking up to him made Toly feel a certain way in his chest. Pride and love that made him feel even guiltier for hurting Vasya. He knew that Andrey looked up to him, always had even though his younger brother loudly proclaimed that he in fact did not. But it had never occurred to him that his cousins who were also younger than him may as well. Toly was determined to apologize to Vasya in theater club. But as it were, she ditched the club meeting and no one was sure where she was; everyone assumed Fogwell’s though. 

So that’s where Toly found himself soon after the club’s meeting ended. He made a face as he watched Vasya go to town punching the punching bag. He wondered if she was imagining his face instead and sincerely hoped not with how ferociously she was attacking it. 

After a couple minutes he whistled to get her attention. She stopped mid punch but when she realized it was just him, she rolled her eyes and went back to punching the bag.

“Nika isn’t here!” She grunted out between punches.

Toly winced but felt he deserved that. “I know. I came to talk to you.”

“I’m not giving her your number or you hers!” She gave a particularly hard punch to the bag, pursing her lips in pain as it jarred her somewhat. “You can go ahead and leave!”

Toly shook his head and walked over to her, dropping his backpack beside her gym bag. “I’m sorry, Vas. I didn’t realize that I was hurting you.”

She scoffed but slowed down her punches. Just not the intensity of which she was hitting the bag. 

Toly took this as a sign that he was allowed to continue. “I was stupid. And selfish. And I’m sorry.”

Vasya finally turned to face him, sweat on her face and a glare still in place. But she didn’t look as mad as she had the day before or even that morning. 

“Are you really? Or did Jack and Andrey put you up to this?” She narrowed her eyes, clearly expecting him to say that yes they had. She was a little surprised when he instead shook his head.

“No, they didn’t.” He looked down at his shoes. “I’m sorry. I just…” He trailed off, unsure now what to say how he was feeling. 

Vasya took mercy on him. She gestured to the boxing ring so they could sit on the edge of it. They sat side by side, both looking down at their shoes. 

Toly sighed. “I just want someone to like me. I get these feelings and they’re so strong and I don’t know what to do, I guess. I liked Honor. I thought by following her around I’d figure out more about her. Be able to surprise her with something she liked. That didn’t work. So when I started to like Nika I thought that spending time with her would get her to like me too. Instead all I did was hurt you and make myself look like a fool.” 

Vasya nodded. “Yeah.” She swung her legs back and forth slowly. “You do know that Honor is a lesbian right?” 

Toly flushed. “I found out after her parents kicked me out of their house.” 

Vasya nodded in approval. “Good.” She bit her lower lip for a moment. “We’ve never really hung out before,” she said softly. “As kids it was always all of us. Or you and Jack, me and Andrey. Or you and Andrey and me and Jack. I don’t know anything that you like, aside from fencing and pretty girls.”

Toly hummed in thought. “Same. I know you like ballet and figure skating.”

They fell into silence for a few moments. Then Toly nudged her with his elbow.

“Wanna get coffee? Just us? I promise to never talk to Nika again.”

Vasya grinned and held up her pinky finger. “Deal.”

As ridiculously childish as he felt doing it, Toly pinky swore with her. He'd deny ever doing it if he were asked about it.

“Let me change and we’ll go. Maybe we can get the barista’s number for you.”

Toly snorted. “In that case, we’re not going to Matvei’s shop. Starbucks?”

“Perfect.” 


End file.
